David Millikan: Ignores Fundamental Rights of Religious Freedom in Australia

by Victoria Lister, Brisbane, Australia

If anyone had suggested to me that one day I would attend a meeting where members of the media ambushed an otherwise peaceful gathering to tell me I was in a cult – (that cult being Universal Medicine) -, I would have been incredulous. To have it actually happen was bizarre and discomfiting beyond belief, particularly in an environment where minors were present. To have it happen in a country where the right to a multiplicity of views is upheld, was saddening. To later leave the venue wondering if I was being secretly observed or recorded, was sickening.

To David Millikan, Uniting Church Minister and so called ‘cult expert’ – and ringleader of the events of the evening of Friday 12th October 2012 at a Universal Medicine presentation at Lennox Head Community Centre – I say; acquaint yourself with the Five fundamental freedomsall Australians are entitled to, most notably the rights to freedom of religion and association.

Millikan clearly has his own agenda, manifesting as a drive to conduct a personal crusade against anyone who offends his sense of what constitutes ‘right’ belief. Best he examines also the annals of history regarding religious persecution.

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It is a not so good feeling to live in Australia in our neighbourhoods and walk along the street and have those thoughts we are being scrutinised, judged and watched. There is many ill-health conditions that can result from this.

Fundamental rights are there to seemingly avoid-redress fundamental wrongs. History is, though, full of examples of fundamental rights violations in all kind of socio-political-institutional contexts. The problem with the wrongs is that they may not be avoided or that redressing them may not lead to the full restauration of the right.

Sometimes we can do things without even considering the lasting impact it may have on others. We say things and engage in behaviours which can be very harmful only to meet our personal agenda and prove a point. It is sad that this is the world we live in, one where the majority really don’t care about others and everything is done to benefit the number one.

We have so much corruption in our world, even our so called developed world, and in fact that developed world arrogantly holds itself as being better than the rest, but as noted here, abuse in this case of religious freedom and right of association happens and it’s horrific that it does. Where are we all that this is considered normal … this is a call for all of us to come back to a basic decency in how we are with everyone. No one deserves any less.

To be honest the self-righteousness and bigotry displayed here by David Millikan is disgusting; that one takes for themselves full advantage of the fundamental rights of every living human to choose to be part of a religion of their own free will, AKA religious freedom, yet seeks to condemn another for exercising the exact same right, simply because it differs from theirs. And we champion ourselves as a humanity for evolving, yet clearly age-old abusive consciousness’ are still rife today in our society such a bigotry and religious discrimination to name but a couple.

I so agree Fumiyo. ‘Right’ feels to be limited, as it comes from an ideal or belief that has been selectively created from the minds of man imposing that we do not know how to live who we are, rather than true freedom, being true is a quality that is already known within the heart of every human being.

This incident made it clear to me that there is no real religious freedom in Australia or in any other part of the world. We get told what to think and believe by corporations and established religions and they don’t want to lose any part of the slice of pie they have carved out. If you put forward anything that exposes the status quo for what it is then you are attacked.

It does take some believing when an innocent gathering is ambushed and treated with the disrespect that no-one has the right to accept. On what grounds can we allow this to happen? It goes on and in some cases rightly so as there are no doubt cults being carried out in parts of the world but before an attack is ever made evidence and true evidence at that has to be carried out and no power is given away in trusting another because on paper what they do for a living or is an expert in a particular field because they too are capable of having an agenda up their sleeve!

How the media has changed. I remember in my early days there was still a respect for people and a sense of wanting to get to the truth of the story. There were conversations had about what was in the media, in papers and people weren’t being shocked etc, they were genuinely interested in what was going on. I remember delivering papers when I was younger and this in itself was cause for conversation about ‘the world’. There was an air of respect in every way around this. Now where has this gone? I hear most people say these days, “You can’t trust the media” or “You can’t believe what you read in the papers” and yet we are still buying and reading the headlines. I feel we all have more responsibility in how we share things about people, whether this be the media print, in a personal email, a phone call or a face to face conversation. Having this care and detail around people will bring to light more when we don’t see it and when it’s not there. The media needs to be pulled back and we can do this from how we are.

The real question is this: is it just ignorance or is it something else at play? It is about something else. And that is that someone capriciously decides that the freedoms apply selectively according to whether you deserve it or not (of course that someone is who decides on that too). This is about abusing the law and abusing people.

It was very low and pretty shocking what took place that day, I was there and you really do sum it all up in this short and concise blog. I remember I popped in to catch the end of the presentation after work, I had a bunch of flowers with me to take home but I didn’t want them to get hot in the car and so I brought them in. When I realised what was going on, I freaked out and started questing how the media was going to use footage of me? I was paranoid and rightly so, I was worried that it looked like I was bringing Serge flowers, crazy I know but the approach was so aggressive that I was afraid I might even loose my job, thanks for speaking up on behalf of all of us that witnessed that shocking behavior.

David Milikan and others who use aggressive and bullying tactics to denounce and denigrate a gathering of people who are there to share a true way of living are exposed as knowing that their chosen beliefs are being challenged by truth.

When any of us enter the realms of ‘what constitutes ‘right’ belief’ in whatever arena we decide to apply it in then we have gone astray. Right excludes, it imposes on another. Truth on the other hand just is, there is no convincing when it’s lived, it’s there just presented and the other has a choice to do with it as they will. The truth is not diminished if that other rejects it, whereas right insists that the other must agree – there is a big difference, and only truth expands and supports all of us.

It is interesting that ‘the right to freedom of religion’ is something written on paper, but not actually something that is upheld, at least not for all religions equally so. I am sure if David Millikan had behaved such in a congregation of the Catholic Church this would have caused an uproar and dire consequences for him.

A minister of religion who planted hidden cameras in the audience in order to sell a sensationalised story to the tabloids – the deceit is literally palpable. Would a man truly representing and living the qualities of God in that moment really be able do that to anyone?